I have flown Guri a lot, Xizor a little. It is a great ship, but it relies on green dice for survival too much considering it's cost. I hope they announce some sort of aces treatment for the Viper and the Syck soon so I can proxy and playtest.

I think the ship needs a non-unique title that's like Tie X1 where you get a modification at -4 points then add a modification at 5 points for only it that's really awesome. Then you can run 4 PS 1s with Autothrusters which is a stellar list, you can run the PS3 possibly, and then Guri and Xizor need to think twice before taking it and losing Virago.

I think the Modification should play on the awesome blocking ability of the Starviper:

Retro-thrusters -

Modification

5 Pts

(Starviper only)

After an enemy ship executes a maneuver that causes it to overlap your ship, you may preform a 1 backward maneuver and receive 1 evade token, then immediately preform an attack on that ship.

I've flown Xizor with consistent success in small-medium sized tournaments through wave 6-7. Here's my thoughts on pricing:

STARVIPER PILOTS

Black Sun Enforcer 25 - Should be ~22

Black Sun Vigo 27 - Should be ~ 24

Guri 30 - ~Should be ~28

Prince Xizor 31 - Should be ~30

In terms of the continuing Starviper fix discussion, I had an interesting idea a while back, something along the lines of:

Articulated Blasters:

Modification

StarViper only

You may perform primary weapon attacks against enemy ships whose base you are touching as though they were not touching you and they were in your firing arc.

0 pts

This allows the StarViper to really get in the thick of a dogfight and do damage. It's not as good on Xizor and Guri, who move later on, but could really be great on Enforcers, who could act as very potent blockers with this upgrade.

Anything they add to the StarViper would be a welcome addition. There has literally never been a time when I was list-building around a StarViper or thinking a StarViper would be a good fit in a 25-40 point hole. The ship has very little appeal, both aesthetically and functionally, so I would enjoy it having some identity.

Anything they add to the StarViper would be a welcome addition. There has literally never been a time when I was list-building around a StarViper or thinking a StarViper would be a good fit in a 25-40 point hole. The ship has very little appeal, both aesthetically and functionally, so I would enjoy it having some identity.

For me, only the named pilots have any sense of identity. Unlike the relatively frail generics, guri and xizor are "don't give a ****" aces

Sure, they don't dance like soontir, but they got tougher raw stats, easy access to rerolls (predator/FCS for PS 9 xizor) leading to greater offense, and they don't pop like soap bubbles upon block or excess stress

So really they're halfway between soonts and poe, only they hit harder than either and are a bit more direct instead of being as flighty as a frightened shadow or able to regen shields

Sexy low speed dials, action independent (thus bump/stress resistant) abilities, easy access to rerolls and the ability to segnors give them plenty of personality